This invention relates generally to the field of musical stringed instruments and more specifically to an article of manufacture for use on the fingerboards of stringed instruments with which musicians make musical notes and chords.
Stringed instruments have been in existence for centuries. However, it wasn't until relatively recent centuries that frets were introduced in order to exact a more accurate means for deriving musical notes and chords. The first fret wire was patented in the 1800's. Since that time, few improvements have been introduced to this important component. The original fret was metal wire in the form of a “T”. The wire has been marketed in long rolls, from which instrument makers cut lengths of the wire to appropriate lengths to fill the different length of slots on the various fingerboards of the instruments.
The leg, or tang, of the T extends to the bottom of the fingerboard slot and the top of the T extends above the fingerboard and is usually rounded to offer more comfort to the musician as he or she fingers the musical notes or chords.
Many fingerboards are curved or contoured. When the appropriate length of wire is cut for a particular slot, the wire is then pounded into the slot. Because of the shape of the wire, the top of the wire tends to stretch and the tang tends to bunch or gather. As a result, as the top of the wire pulls and the bottom of the wire pushes, there is a tendency for the lower ends of the wire to lift out of the slot, and may warp. In 1893, John F. Stratton received a patent on a fret design, U.S. Pat. No. 501,743. This fret design has substantially endured for subsequent years, to the present. This design embodied the T configuration, whereby the tang was inserted into a slot cut into the fingerboard of the instrument; and the top of the T constituted the actual fret with which musical notes and chords were made. Additionally, the tang was endowed with elongated triangular cutouts, designed to help hold the fret in place once installed. This design is adequate for instruments that have flat fingerboards; but are troublesome for contoured fingerboards.
High pressures or hammer blows required for installation frequently lead to distorted fret surfaces which must be leveled and dressed by skill laborers prior to sending the instrument to market, or releasing it to a repair customer. During routinely required replacement, fingerboard slots frequently become wide or otherwise damaged, exacerbating the problem of loosening frets.